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Clearwater River Basin Spring Chinook Salmon

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Clearwater River Basin Spring Chinook Salmon HATCHERY AND GENETIC MANAGEMENT PLAN Hatchery Program: Clearwater Spring and Summer Chinook Salmon (Clearwater Fish Hatchery) Spring/summer Chinook Salmon Species or Oncorhynchus tshawytscha. Hatchery Stock: South Fork, Powell, and Clear Creek stocks Agency/Operator: Idaho Department of Fish and Game Watershed and Region: Clearwater River, Idaho. Date Submitted: Date Last Updated: November 2011 Page 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The management goal for the Clearwater Spring Chinook salmon population is to provide sustainable fishing opportunity and to enhance the natural spawning population. While the Snake River Spring- and Summer-Run Chinook Salmon Ecological Significant Unit (ESU) was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) on August 22, 1992, the non-indigenous hatchery spring-run Chinook stocks currently found in the Clearwater River and its tributaries are not listed under the ESA because the historical populations in the basin were likely extirpated following construction of Lewiston Dam in 1927. The purpose of the Clearwater River spring Chinook hatchery program is to mitigate for fish losses caused by the construction and operation of the four lower Snake River federal dams. The hatchery mitigation program is a federally authorized mandate to annually return 12,000 adult spring Chinook salmon to stream reaches upstream of Lower Granite Dam after harvest of 48,000 adults by commercial and sport fisheries in the ocean, the Columbia River and the lower Snake River. Current hatchery production and supplementation efforts from this program are consistent with the 2008-2017 US vs. Oregon Management Agreement. Fish culture is performed at the Clearwater Hatchery. Broodstock collection occurs at the Red River, Crooked River, and the Powell satellite facilities and at Kooskia Hatchery (Clear Creek). Hatchery operations and monitoring activities are funded by the Bonneville Power Administration through the Lower Snake River Compensation Plan (LSRCP). Where appropriate, other sources of funding for monitoring activities are identified. Juvenile releases from the segregated programs will occur in the Lochsa River (400,000 spring- run smolts); Selway River (400,000 spring-run smolts and 300,000 spring-run parr); Red River (SF Clearwater) (1.1 million spring-run smolts); Clear Creek (235,000 spring-run smolts); and Crooked River (200,000 summer-run smolts). Locally adapted broodstock will be used for the Lochsa River, South Fork Clearwater and Clear Creek programs. Broodstock from one of these sites will be used for releases in the Selway River program until such time as infrastructure is in place to collect broodstock in the Selway River. This mitigation program has never achieved the escapement goal of 12,000 adults to the project area since the inception of the program. Based on the most recent 10 year geometric mean SAR of 0.34% to Lower Granite dam (Red River, Crooked River and Powell combined), the production capacity at this facility needs to be increased to 3.5 million yearling smolts to return 12,000 adults to the project area under recent Columbia River harvest schedules. Early in the program, managers agreed (through the USvOR process) to scale back the steelhead production goals that were originally modeled for the program to meet the mitigation goal of returning 14,000 steelhead back to Lower Granite Dam. This reduction in steelhead production provided additional rearing space for Chinook salmon at Clearwater Fish Hatchery. Managers have prioritized the use of that space to increase the production of spring- and summer-run Chinook salmon at Clearwater Fish Hatchery. The original production target for spring Chinook salmon was 1.4 million yearling smolts. Currently, 2,135,000 spring-run Chinook yearling smolts are reared at Clearwater Fish Hatchery. Page 2 Of the total release, 135,000 smolts are not adipose fin clipped and do not contribute to mark selective fisheries. Additionally, 500,000 subyearling spring Chinook salmon, primarily intended for supplementation, are reared at Clearwater Fish Hatchery. In addition to the existing spring Chinook program, managers have initiated the development of a locally adapted summer-run Chinook salmon population in the Clearwater River. Anecdotal accounts of wild Chinook returns to Clearwater basin prior to their extirpation suggest that they may have included both spring- and summer-run populations. IDFG, the Nez Perce Tribe, and the LSRCP initiated a program in 2009 to evaluate the potential of building a locally adapted hatchery population and supplement naturally spawning summer-run Chinook salmon populations in the Clearwater River drainage. Eggs from the harvest portion of the McCall Hatchery program on the South Fork Salmon River are being incubated and reared at the Clearwater Fish Hatchery. The smolts will be released in the Crooked River in the upper South Fork Clearwater drainage. Adult returns from those releases will be trapped at the Clearwater Hatchery Crooked River trapping facility and used to develop a locally adapted and fully independent summer-run broodstock for subsequent harvest and supplementation releases in the Selway and South Fork Clearwater rivers. Egg transfers from the McCall Hatchery will cease once a locally adapted broodstock is developed in the Clearwater River. Key performance standards for the program will be tracked in a targeted monitoring and evaluation program. These standards include: (1) abundance and composition of natural spawners and hatchery broodstock (pHOS, pNOB, and PNI); (2) number of smolts released; (3) in-hatchery and post-release survival rates; (4) total age specific adult recruitment, harvest and escapement of the natural and hatchery components; and (5) abundance, productivity, diversity and spatial structure of the naturally spawning Chinook populations. SECTION 1. GENERAL PROGRAM DESCRIPTION 1.1 NAME OF HATCHERY OR PROGRAM Hatchery: Clearwater Fish Hatchery Program: Clearwater Spring Chinook 1.2 SPECIES AND POPULATION (OR STOCK) UNDER PROPAGATION, AND ESA STATUS The species being propagated is Spring Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). The Snake River Spring- and Summer-Run Chinook Salmon ESU was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) on August 22, 1992 and reaffirmed on June 28, 2005. The ESU includes those fish that spawn in the Snake River drainage and its major tributaries, including the Grande Ronde River and the Salmon River, and that complete their adult, upstream migration (passing Bonneville Dam) between March and July. The non-indigenous hatchery spring- and summer-run Chinook stocks currently used in the Clearwater River and its tributaries are not considered part of the ESU (57 FR 14653). Native spring Chinook salmon were likely Page 3 extirpated from the Clearwater River subbasin following the construction of Lewiston Dam in 1927. Source: HSRG 2009 Figure 1. Clearwater River Spring Chinook MPG. 1.3 RESPONSIBLE ORGANIZATION AND INDIVIDUALS Lead Contact Name (and title): Pete Hassemer, Anadromous Fish Manager. Agency or Tribe: Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Address: 600 S. Walnut, P.O. Box 25, Boise, ID 83707. Telephone: (208) 334-3791. Fax: (208) 334-2114. Email: [email protected] On-site Operations Lead Page 4 Name (and title): Jerry McGehee, Fish Hatchery Manager II. Agency or Tribe: Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Address: 4156 Ahsahka Rd., Ahsahka, ID 83520. Telephone: (208) 476-3331. Fax: (208) 479-3548. Email: [email protected] Other agencies, Tribes, co-operators, or organizations involved, including contractors, and extent of involvement in the program: IDFG, the Nez Perce Tribe, the Lower Snake River Compensation Plan office and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service collaboratively develop and implement production plans to meet mitigation goals and productions goals outlined in the U.S. vs. OR 2008-2017 Management Plan. The same agencies meet collaboratively to co-author Annual Operating Plans for the Clearwater River Spring/Summer Chinook Salmon programs at Clearwater Hatchery and they work collaboratively in –season to meet shared broodstock needs for the Clearwater Hatchery Dworshak Hatchery, Kooskia Hatchery, and Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery programs. IDFG coordinates with the Nez Perce and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to manage state and tribal fisheries for harvest shares and ESA take. Harvest and hatchery management coordination includes pre-season planning, scheduled weekly meetings and post-season summary meetings to share information and identify management actions required to meet tribal and state fishery objectives. Specific responsibilities of other agencies are as follows: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Lower Snake River Compensation Plan Office: Administers the Lower Snake River Compensation Plan as authorized by the Water Resources Development Act of 1976. Nez Perce Tribe: The Clearwater Fish Hatchery incubates eggs and rears juvenile Chinook salmon for the Nez Perce Tribal supplementation program as identified in the 2008-2017 Management Agreement associated with the development of the Columbia River Fish Management Plan under the U.S. v Oregon process. 1.4 FUNDING SOURCE, STAFFING LEVEL, AND ANNUAL HATCHERY PROGRAM OPERATIONAL COSTS The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service funds this program under the Lower Snake River Compensation Plan. Annual budget: $1,887,000. Staffing level: 8 permanent staff and 152 months of temporary staff time. This budget accounts for both
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